A BU Flute Thief Is on the Loose, Police Say

A flute thief roams the streets of Boston, police are warning, after they say a man brazenly snatched a valuable wind instrument from BU’s College of Fine Arts on August 29.

BU Police shared photos of the alleged culprit, a shiny-domed man of medium height and small build in a white T-shirt and wearing a black backpack, on Mass Most Wanted. He allegedly also made off with an iPad 2, according to the alert, spotted by Universal Hub today.

But it’s the flute that has, by far, the most value. It’s made by Bedford’s Arista Flutes, whose handmade instruments start at $12,800 for the sterling silver model (the kind allegedly lifted in August) and goes as high as $45,000 for one made of solid 14k rose gold, according to a pricing list on its website.

Stolen flutes is, apparently, a huge problem for the community. There’s an entire website, Oregon-based The Flute Network, dedicated to reuniting flautists with their wayward wind instruments. Thankfully, flutes have in fact found their way home this way, as was described in FluteNet’s Saga of a Flute’s Adventure.